fvgraham080803

Susan Graham lit up the stage at Avery Fisher Hall Friday night by
singing 2 arias from the masters Gluck and Handel respectively. Yet,
what are people still chirping about? "Who was the last diva who could
pull off FUCHSIA?"

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first: the NYCOF has only two tee-
tinesy quibbles with la Graham's performance. First, it didn't sound as
if Graham was in ultimax vocal fettle on Friday night. There was just
enough hesitancy mixed in with the usual Graham vocal abandon to
cast a shadow of a doubt on the entire evening. My second quibble: it
seems that the Divine Miss G. needs at least one aria to warm up her
voice. In both sets of arias, the second aria found Graham in more
free and full vocal estate.

Still, if that is all the NYCOF can bitch about (and the above
comments were observations, not really gripes), then it was a
happy evening indeed.

Graham’s first set was two arias from Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride -
well, more appropriately perhaps an aria and a “declamation” from
Gluck's IeT: “O malheureuse Iphigenie” & “Non, cet affreux devoir...Je t’
implore et je tremble”. Graham's first aria, “O malheureuse Iphigenie”
was plaintive but not really up to the full potential of the Divine Miss G.
However, the declamatory “Non, cet affreux devoir...Je t’implore et je
tremble” found Graham up-to-snuff and she made the most out of the
lesser-known of the two Gluck pieces. Oh, and here's where the
Fuchsia comes in.....SG wore a hunter green halter-top gown with an
exclamation mark fuschia sash. Queer Eye for the Straight Gal
approves -- a little bit more reddish tint in the hair and she
would have been fab-u-lous.

After intermission, la Graham returned to sing two Handel arias.
Graham first sang “Mi lusinga il dolce affretto” from Alcina. Again, as
with the first Gluck piece, Ruggiero’s aria from Alcina was merely O-K.
But, Graham pulled out all the stops for her second aria, Ariodante’s
tour-de-force “Dopo notte, atra e funesta”. Oh, my gawd, Susie.
Sure, there were a couple of flubs on notes but Graham’s bravura
singing was second-to-none to any mezzo warbling today (need, I
repeat that?). If the powers-that-be don’t bring Graham to Gotham
wearing Ariodante’s trousers, then we New Yorkers will be surely be
the worse-off for missing what must be one of Graham’s best roles.

For the Handel pieces, SG dressed appropriately in trousers ...
sparkly trousers. Good...but the top was a little too Lubbock
lesbian for the Queer Eye's taste. Just my own personal view--
smirk. But then again, the NYCOF still wears flannel.

Still, we all knew Susan Graham was great before she sashayed
across stage on Friday night. The revelation of the evening was
conductor Philippe Jordan in his NY orchestral debut. Jordan backed
up Graham's florid-Dora girl act impeccably. This Jordan boy is the
one to watch (and the NYCOF won't mind that at all)

Hmmm...was there any other stuff going on at Avery Fisher Hall that
night. Not that the NYCOF can remember. Oh..well..Leila Josefowicz
was too Elke Sommers for her own good self....but that's a
whole other episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Gal.